Verizon is Raising Upgrade and Activations Fees to $40

Yesterday evening, a source of ours tipped us to a potential increase in Verizon’s activation and upgrade fees that would go into effect February 5. The rates would increase from $35 and $30 up to $40, respectively. While we were unable to verify with a second source, the folks at PhoneScoop received confirmation directly from Verizon this morning. The fees are indeed increasing to the numbers we were tipped to.

What are activation and upgrade fees? An activation fee is the fee charged when you establish a new line of service. That fee is now $40. An upgrade fee is the fee that applies when you purchase a new device at a discount, with a contract extension. That fee is also now $40. You are never charged for both, but basically understand that if you sign a contract to receive a phone at a discounted price or add a line, you will be charged $40.

Prepaid is excluded from the increase, and Verizon Edge is excluded from these fees, according to our information.

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These upgrade fees have been $40 for a while now at retailers like target mobile.

John Davids

Upgrade fee for a subsidized phone. What a crock. Can you just make your subsidized price $40 more across the board and stop pretending that you are clever?

Alex Niehaus

It’s kind of hilarious that vzw raises a fee by $10 that people get charged every 22-24 months and people start FLAMING vzw (esp considering it is now the same cost as AT&T & just now is higher than Sprint.)

vzwuser76

It’s cumulative. They raise things a little bit at a time consistently and before you know it, we’re at where we currently are. In the last 6 years, they’ve essentially taken away any benefits of being a long time customer including unlimited data, and replaced them with higher fees and rates for what people use. Maybe if they’d only taken away the benefits and left the prices the same, or left the benefits and upped the prices, but they decided to do both. So your thinking is just take what they give you and be happy about it? Or maybe go somewhere else, which isn’t an option for many people.

Nate

How long til the “fee” equals the discounted phone price? I bet it will be $100 in not to long of a time.

BoFiS

No better time than now to ditch big red and be free to pickup whatever phone you want for TMobile 😀 I am VERY pleased with my Z3 Compact purchase, and feel more people would appreciate it if any carriers sold it :-

M3D1T8R

Good thing I’ll never be doing another upgrade or activation with them. Unlimited data for life. Buy my own devices.

Aaron Thomas

dfd

No_Smoking

and wasn’t there an article that said they did really well financially recently? This is so freaking greedy of them. How about cutting the loyal customers some slack for once! I guess it might be time to seriously start looking at other companies.

BOB Dudek

Billions of dollars, just don’t go as far as it used to..

vzwuser76

Yeah, poor Verizon. Their money clip won’t hold all their $100 bills, and their diamond shoes are too tight.

RichFromBX

another advantage to living in NY – I can use T-Mobile with absolutely no issues. It’s insane to me to have to pay $40 “just because”. You go in to by a G3 on contract for $100 and then there’s an additional 40% tacked on to the total cost just because you opted to go contact instead of Edge.

Mike

You do realize that’s the same as AT&T and only $4 more than Sprint right? Just because T-Mobile doesn’t give you the option of a contract doesn’t mean that they are trying to gouge their customers.

RichFromBX

I know the activation fees of the other carriers which is why I didn’t specifically call out Verizon in my comment. The $40 (or $36) is a ridiculous fee regardless of who the carrier is. Again, you go in an decide you want a $100 phone on contract and they stick you with a fee that’s 40% of the cost of the item you’re buying…and for what?The idea of a $40 “just because” fee is insane.

paul_cus

You don’t say.

ChgoTekFili

My friends and I just buy the phone upfront (unless they are with T-Mobile)… F*ck other carriers and their upgrade/activation fees… #buyunlock #nocontract

213ninja

this is where i really hope Google can make an impact with their new service…if they stir the pot enough Verizon will be forced to make changes and fall in line. here’s to hoping anyway……

kashtrey

That’s really wishful thinking. Remember Verizon is the company that just said we don’t do what others are doing unless it makes us money with regards to rollover data. Verizon isn’t one to “fall in line.” Like it or not they’re the big dog and people will complain, some will even leave, but Verizon will only do what it wants even in spite of losing subscribers.

213ninja

i’m more than aware.

i’m not sure what part of my comment led you to believe i had no idea what i was talking about so i’ll just refer you to the two parts where i said “i hope”, which is in of itself an indicator of “wishful thinking”. everything i said is reasonable in context.

ProZomby

AKA “Just Because” fees

Arty McBert

The least consumer-friendly wireless provider ever. Can’t wait for the day that Verizon burns to the ground and gets replaced with wireless providers that don’t nickle and dime their customers and treat them like trash.

schlanz

how are they the least consumer friendly when every other major carrier has been charging higher fees? verizon is just catching up with what the 2nd leading carrier is charging.

I swear the lengths of b*ing people go to when a little change is made. meanwhile billions are poured into tge network each year to ensure you’re still on the best network.

monkeybutts

I remember when I had AT&T with my employer discount I would get free activation, but not free upgrade, it’s the same damn fee.

Jim

Most people on verizon are on a corporate plan so they likely never paid an activation charge. yes there will be outliers but the majority wouldn’t be hit with the activation charge. And $40 to upgrade, that sounds shady when you are already paying the amount for the phone. Everything but real taxes should be advertised and bundled together. then people wouldn’t be able to complain about the below the line fees.

FknTwizted

It blows my mind people aren’t up in arms about this… its not the $40 i have a problem with its the fact that they keep pushing the envelope to see how far they can go before we say that’s enough… the other problem is that they can get away with this because they are the largest and no one can honestly compete at this point with them.

DC_Guy

So a couple extra dollars once or year or every two years. I’m not concerned…but mainly because I don’t pay it anyway. The things we do for unlimited data…

Spider210

You know what is ironic is that there is no ‘upgrade fee’ if you bring your own device, purchase full retail, or do edge and there is no ‘activation fee’ for new lines when you provide your own equipment. Why not just increase each 2 year price by $40 and call it day… then no matter what the customer does, edge or 2 yr there is no ‘fee’ involved. win , win

John

Haha obviously everyone forgot that AT&T has been at $40 for quite a while.

PoisonApple31

And the people that are crying foul are the ones who don’t even purchase on contract at Verizon.

Nautical Nate

But it’s already $40…? Maybe they charge more if you upgrade at Best Buy, because $40 is the fee there already.

PoisonApple31

How long ago did you upgrade?

Nautical Nate

I work in the mobile department there. It’s been $40 for quite awhile. Same with AT&T. Sprint is at $36.

stealthvoodoo

Dude, whatever you’re smoking, you should share, because that’s dead on wrong.

Nautical Nate

Hmm nope. Just confirmed it with my department manager– whose been there for five years now –and he’s pretty sure it’s always been $40.

Once again, perhaps it’s a bit different since we’re through a third party retailer.

stealthvoodoo

I work there too. Trust me, it’s been $30 since they introduced it and it’s not different because we’re indirect because we have no impact on whether it gets assessed or not.

Nautical Nate

Does it list it in the Buyer’s Guide, by chance? I thought I saw it there, too.

Oh well, I guess I just assumed their prices were similar to AT&T as in most other things.

stealthvoodoo

Ya know, I’m not sure that they do list it. I know it shows up on the contract you print out before you finish in BEAST.

Another way to dodge the new fees? Keep grandfathered unlimited til the day you die and will it to a family member. That’s the only way I feel right about staying with Verizon, sucking up all the data I want/need at the same low cost. And no, I don’t take advantage of it by rooting and using for free hotspot. That’s a bit too much IMHO.

BustNHeadsDaily

You guys act surprised Verizon raised the price on something.

Kevin

thanks, obama!

jrod3737

… because, Verizon.

C-Law

What the heck! $30 was already ridiculous. At $40, they aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they can just take all the money from us that they want without consequence. They know that way less than 1% of people will leave over this

David Narada Brown

I hate this f-ing company! they charge their customers for remaining a customer. they charge the group who makes the long term commitment more than those who are month to month. this should tell you who has more say so at verizon. its the ppl who leave their options open to go wherever they want!

PoisonApple31

$10 more over 2 years for a contract? Is money really that tight for some people?

Ryan Clayton

It’s $10 this year. What about next year? The price keeps creeping up and up. Remember when we used to be able to upgrade after 16 months? Now it’s 2 years, no early upgrades. I used to get a discount on a new phone after 1 year because of the $ amount of my bill. Not anymore. I used to have unlimited data…not anymore. It’s not just a $10 increase…it’s the slow increase in cost overtime. WTF is an ‘upgrade fee’ anyway? You want to sell me a discounted phone for $100. Great, sell me the phone, I already have the service. Why am I charged another $40 to continue being your customer?

hkklife

We used to have 1 year contracts, early upgrades, unlimited data plans, and non-scrutinized employee discounts. Heck, until 2008 you could even have a smartphone and use it without a mandatory data plan! Granted, that was in the days before Wi-Fi on smartphones but still…

Vetal

its this kind of attitude that the Verizon likes, herd mentality! This is pure profit for them with a 125million subscribers and only 10 million upgrade this year at $10 extra you are looking a 100million in profit.

PoisonApple31

Do you buy phones on contract?

Vetal

nope, it may not affect me but it doesn’t mean its okay.

David Narada Brown

Are you aware of the profits Verizon posted last qtr? y do they need $10 more of my money? Yes it is that tight for ppl who dont profit billions every qtr! and this is for the customer who decided to stay for 2 more years.

Daniel Marcus

Verizon: Still hasn’t fixed reception at my office, nor the nearby mall, which currently get devices about .3 megabits on LTE.
T-Mobile: Averages 17 megabits at my office and the mall, and just turned on a ton of new towers in the area including several smaller fringe areas and new 1900mhz LTE.

Well, I guess now that Verizon isn’t making from us, they have to recoup it somehow. (It’s been almost 9 months now, people at the office are starting to switch carriers because they get no data at work.)

You’re one of the lucky ones on Verizon’s fringe area. Those places are awesome when you can find them. I used to have their old unlimited plan, and when I would go out to the coast on a lightly populated island, the speeds were fantastic. Verizon is still way ahead of T-Mobile, but the more that T-Mobile rolls out new towers, and the more that Verizon fails to maintain their more densely populated areas, that gap shrinks. For example, my friend used to have no coverage or a tiny bit of edge where he works, and as of this week, T-Mobile has expanded 4G into the area.

213ninja

i definitely hear your point about ‘fails to maintain dense areas’. i used to get 25-50 everywhere….now those speeds are hardly ever seen. i average about 7 at this point. i’m sure it’s because LTE customers are being added by the thousands, but let’s keep that network beefy enough that i don’t have to take a significant hit, huh VZ?

after taking a tmo test drive, i know they are inferior in my area so i’m dealing with VZ for the time being.

DanWazz

This is how they are leaders in the industry. Instead of following by letting you keep your data and keeping some customers, they just charge those who stay more money.

Crazy talk. The upgrade PRICE is $200. The upgrade FEE is $40. If you can’t tell the difference between the two…

…well…okay, you may have a point there…

jimt

That is the ultimate in Verizon speak.

PoisonApple31

For the same reason AT&T and Sprint aren’t charged with false advertising.

Cael

I’m never signing a contract again!

tha_toadman

Makes two of us and there are many more that will not as well.

Nicolas Finn

All the more reason to buy phone elsewhere and bring them over to Verizon. If you’re activating a line for the first time, it’s the same price as AT&T, so this is more of an attempt at matching their competitors.

Anyways, if you already have a line open and you switch to a new device (one you bought elsewhere or full price from VZW), then you aren’t going to deal with the upgrade fee anyways.

tha_toadman

To second this comment: Anyone with ULD should be outright purchasing their phones from here on out. If you do a subsidized phone upgrade, the fact is you’re going to lose ULD. End of story. Contracts are evil but I cant complain about VZWs coverage. Its solid. Like Nicolas said, buy your phone elsewhere, bring it to VZW, put your micro or nano SIM card in, done. Those of us with ULD and and an open line don’t experience any fees when we switch phones.

Jonathan Alstad

…and tell anyone else who has ownership on your account (i.e. family plans) not to “borrow” your upgrade for any reason, ever… *sigh*

guest

Verizon sucks, but i have grand fathered ULD, oh well..

LaFave07

If you’re on a More Everything plan with 10GB or more, where the off contract/Edge access fees for smartphones is $15, you’d be crazy not to do Edge.

It’s a LOT cheaper. You’re only getting ~$17.00 per month subsidy with the upgrade fee included on a two year contract and the access fee is $40 per month. PLUS the $200+ price for the phone. On Edge your device payment will be around $27 for 24 months +$15 access fee with no down payment. You do the math.

PoisonApple31

If you are on a More Everything plan with 10GB or more, and out of contract, you can still get the line access fee discount (same as Edge discount) without having to sign up for Edge.

LaFave07

Right. Hence why I said off contract/Edge.

PoisonApple31

My bad I misread. Been happening a lot lately.

Jim

or you go buy a nexus device and walk into tmobile and get service. so much easier.

213ninja

not everywhere you can’t buddy, let’s not forget the ole coverage maps….

Jim

While that may the case for certain instances (and yes everyone will find some exception) from my experience my Verizon coverage has been getting poorer, slower speeds, and my friends with tmobile are getting more and more coverage.I admit verizon likely has more coverage at this point, i believe tmobile is catching up. Plus i think the verizon towers are getting more and more overloaded so even though i have coverage my speed could vary greatly even to the point of timing out, but there are bars there.

213ninja

i agree with all of that. my comment basically stems from the fact that i am with verizon and did a tmo test drive, and realized they are not there yet in my particular area. it’s all about that coverage map…

oh Verizon, keep it going, keep working your consumers and watch your demise come in time….follow the path of Kodak, Poloroid, Blackberry, Nokia and more. Consumers always prevail….Remember we made you and will break you.

Bane

That’s right!

Droidtommy

Go for it……

ThomasMoneyhon

Most consumers will let verizon do whatever it wants because well… network. Verizon knows this and plays it to their advantage. They know you will smile while grabbing those ankles.

RiceCake

And that many of the customers have joined EDGE so they had to raise the upgrade fee

C-Law

But this doesn’t apply to edge. So they screw the rest of us bc they weren’t already screwing edge customers hard enough? I guess that does sound about right for verizon.

mcdonsco

I joined edge…the edge network on T-Mobile at my house that is, just to ditch Verizon.

Here’s to hoping T-Mobile makes good on the 2g — > 4g thing by summer :-/

No, in the movie when Marty was in the future, he bought a sports almanac after hearing about the Cubs winning the world series and a guy saying he wished he could go back in time and put money on the Cubbies. The date they won the world series was October 21st, 2015. Understand that the movie was made in the late 80s, so 2015 was quite a while into the future. Speaking of which, where are the hover boards, flying cars and Mr. Fushion? F#%king Robert Zemekis! 😉

Yeah, no. What is that? That’s at most an inch off the ground. Fine if you’re in a dedicated skate park, but try going from a sidewalk, to the street, and back onto a sidewalk. You’d be eating pavement. The movie one had around the same amount of clearance a regular skateboard would.

213ninja

nah, i know the movies word for word. i was simply asking if you are Biff….lol.

because i want that almanac…

vzwuser76

Ahh, gotcha. Hard to tell these days, seems like most people on the internet would say Back to the what? Is that a new indie rock group?

all device makers that couldn’t stay competitive because they couldn’t adapt to changing technology.. not $100b revenue generating service providing behemoths that own a gigantic portion of a finite resource (spectrum)

face it vzw and at&t aren’t going away

Bane

They need the extra money to pay developers to add bloatware apps to your phones and for all the white paint it takes to plaster three of their logos on each device.

mike

I never have to pay this. My fee has always been waived.

billybobd

No kidding….

David Tyler

Prepaid is the way to go. These big companies are too greedy while they are bringing profits quarter after quarter. Damn the consumer.

Inspector Butters

I remember when verizon used to give a “loyalty” discount and they gave you $50 anytime you upgraded…nice $90 swing they got going now

schlanz

you mean back when the full retail price of phones was $300-400 and the subsidy was $200 off? now the full retail is $500-700 with a subsidy of $400-500 off. gotta maintain the proper perspective. you’re still technically getting a better deal now even with upgrade fees.

not to mention, in some cases on the installment programs you pay no fees and your bill could actually go down or stay the same without paying anything for your phone…

Ahku Droid

Average plans were also $50 – $80 a month then, now they are much higher. They have adjusted monthly bills to offset any increase in hardware. This activation fee is nothing more than them seeing what they can get away with because they just earned top cellular network again. Verizon is far from magnanimous.

schlanz

The smallest price for a single line with data and texting (450 mins and 1000 text) was 80, unlimited talk and text was 120. Now the cheapest for unlimited talk and text is 60. Don’t get me wrong its not because verizon wants to be nice and offer better rates; they have to because the market is becoming much more competitive.

exvzwemployee

actually, it used to be 69.99 (39.99 for 450 minute plan and 30 for data).

schlanz

and $10 for texting.

Ahku Droid

I was referring to the pre-data dumbphone era. I signed up for a Verizon business plan that was $78 and had unlimited voice and text. It was only available for a month in the late 90s long before unlimited was available to all. They allowed me to stay grandfathered to it for a decade before I bought the OG Droid and needed data.

Lenny

Att fees are 40 for activations and so is Sprint. Verizon edge has no fees when you upgrade. Just the taxes down on the phone. 2 year contracts are very expensive compared to EDGE. I work at Bestbuy mobile and I see everyday what people are spending on 2year contracts. Edge is cheaper in the long run.

Christian Trevor Clauss

So glad I’m done using this carrier.

The Duke

At&t has been 40 forever and Verizon was the last in the industry to even get an upgrade fee. Yet everyone jumps on their back first. Just because T-Mobile and Sprint are willing to lose money on getting new customers with unsustainable pricing doesn’t make it a good business practice, or make at&t or Verizon a rip off.

No quotes needed. You can’t stay in business long when your cost per line is higher that what you’re charging. And even the miniscule amount of money T-Mobile puts in their network has to be paid for somewhere. And right now it’s not.

Bane

Quotes are always needed. “You merely adopted the name Duke. I was born into it, molded by it.”

msonic

Hey Verizon… I love your service… And I am not switching away any time soon… But…

Verizon:
“Because lube is expensive dang it. Now just shut up and take it like a nice little Bit*** “

Zoloft_User

Just the tip?

vzwuser76

Just the tip was when they killed unlimited data. I think they’re about halfway in now.

Doakie

“No more unlimited data…. And to hell if you think we’ll let your data roll over!”

vzwuser76

And we’re the ones responsible for how they view themselves now. Imagine if you told a child constantly that they were the greatest and let them get away with whatever they wanted. That would be the most obnoxious, out of control child who thinks of nothing but how great they are. Sound familiar?

Gasaraki

Sshhhhh… It’s ok. Yeah…. You’ll like it.

ThatBabyAintMine

“The rates would increase from $35 and $30 up to $40, respectively.”

What is being respective here? There’s only one thing ($40) being respective to two things ($35, $30).

ThatBabyAintMine, that doesn’t make sense. To say things are respectively being increased, you need two amounts on both ends of the statement. If both fees are going to $40, just say that. The word respectively isn’t used correctly here.

Zoloft_User

Get in there good!

Guest

Hey Verizon…I love your service… And I wont be switching away from you any time soon.. But…

Ahmed

I feel bad for the sphincter’s of Verizon customers, please everyone, let’s take a moment of silence in their sphincters’ honor.

Jonathan Alstad

I’m still waiting to hear back if they are going to reinstate my unlimited data plan after my mom unknowingly used my upgrade (that had been sitting dormant on my account for nearly 3 years) to buy an iPhone 5C…

I marched back into the store, returned that POS and set her up on an old iPhone 5 of my brother’s, and have now been calling since last Friday to see if the “Pending” status of the IPR (invalid? plan request) has been changed to “accepted” or whatever…I’m scared.

Mr_Vindictive

I used to work for VZW. IPR (Inactive Pricing Request) is a form that reps would fill out and it would go to a special team that were the only ones allowed to give customers plans/features that are no longer offered but were removed incorrectly. I’ll go ahead and tell you that it won’t go through. I never had one get approved, and I never spoke to any co-worker who ever had luck with it. Most used it as a way to get the customer off of the phone and told them just to call back in a few days.

Your unlimited is gone. I’m sorry but VZW is the worst. They don’t give a damn about the customer and they always refuse to fix problems that they started.

Jonathan Alstad

Well, the fortunate part is that the contract renewal got canceled, so if nothing else, I can FINALLY free myself from their bondage and jump ship to another carrier. A part of me has wanted to for a long time, but I continued to be placated by their network strength and the unlimited data plan. If they don’t approved it, I have no incentive (and no obligation) to stay. That’s about as positive as I can spin the situation.

Mr_Vindictive

I had unlimited data when I started working there a few years ago. They forced me to switch to a Share Everything Plan when switching to an employee account. At the time there was a promotion for where the more people they switched to Share Everything, they would get a monetary kickback. Happened a few times while I worked there. I later found out that as an employee I could have kept my unlimited data. I was still within the proper time window to switch back and it was denied every time, even for an employee. I loathe that company even more after working there. After seeing the way it all worked, I was sickened.

Jonathan Alstad

WELL frick…I dunno. I’m calling back tonight so I’ll post back how it goes…if I manage to get it, I’ll be happy as a clam…which is kind of sad, because I’ll just be right back where I had been for the last several years…

Art Holguin

how did they force you to switch? i’m still rocking my unlimited on multiple lines. I’ve never been asked to change plans.

Mr_Vindictive

This was done by Employee Accounts, basically in house customer service, when I started working there. It happened when converting my normal account into an employee account.

Ahmed

oh dear zues, the IPR team is the worst, the excuses for their declines of the requests are hilariously irrelevant 810 times.

Jonathan Alstad

The part that REALLY pisses me off is having spent hundreds (thousands?) of dollars over the last several years to keep up with the new, relevant phone tech by buying off-contract through Moto, Craigslist, etc…only to have it all wasted with one innocent mistake. I’m trying not to let on to my mom how much this has pissed me off because it’s really not her fault and I don’t want to make her feel guilty…but seriously, it’s pissing me off. So I’m going to spend as much time on the phone with them as I can just to make sure they are aware how much of a pleasant pain in the @$$ I can be…

Ahmed

The only question that matters is this, did you contact verizon within 30 days of your change to request it back?
If so , and you have proof or documentation of such (or proof that there is notes of your request), legally, Verizon can be held liable for that. Just some advice man… Also if you escalate know that you are not speaking to anybody in leadership, just another customer service rep who’s role playing as a suprevisor.

Jonathan Alstad

Yeah, I’ve got SOME documentation, and I have an IPR ID number…so…I dunno. Should I be recording my calls with them every time I call to check the status of it?

Marc

Since that’s not legal in most states you won’t be able to use it to your advantage. Unless you live in a state where that’s okay to do…

Jonathan Alstad

It’s legal in MN (where I live) so long as you use the recording for legal purposes (i.e. not blackmail…)

Marc

Well, that’s awesome! I am not sure if you have to let them know you are recording the phone call. Once you have figured that out you should record the convo’s going forward.

Jonathan Alstad

Of course it seems most recorder apps require root, and I’m on the 2013 Moto X. lol THE PLOT THICKENS. I’ll just have to use the speakerphone and a standard recording app, I guess…

Ahmed

If all fails man, come to T-mobile, i switched, and see no diff in services from Verizon, speeds vary of course, but you gain wifi calling and text. It evens out.

Ahmed

My dude, when you are protecting yourself, from a monster corporation like Verizon, the law can politely step aside.
Also one must wonder how it’s legal that all calls to verizon are recorded yet legal…

Ahmed

Honestly if you reached a direct Verizon corporate rep, your call is recorded by verizon, if you spoke with outsourced agent your call is gone and screwed.

My advice, for your own protection record the calls.
Verizon operates on “evidence” and if you have evidence they have no choice but to comply with it.

RiceCake

Yeah I was “promised” my unlimited would be reinstated for a similar case as yours. I ended up screen capping the chats because they never emailed a transcript of them to me. Figures they wouldn’t. But basically I gave up fighting and left them. I love now being able to text and make calls in buildings and not pay as much.

6stringslinger

Not true AT ALL. I had my ULD taken away by a phone CSR when I asked them to simply activate a different phone on my line. After a few texts from Big Red saying I was over my data allowance and was being charged for the overage, I called and explained that the rep screwed up and kind of nicely demanded my old plan back. It took about a week to have it fixed, but fix it they did, no problem. My son caused a similar ULD screw up on his mom’s line. VZW had him write a letter explaining why mom should get her ULD back, and Verizon gave it back, no problem.

trext

Have faith. I went insane for second and purchased a phone on contract losing my unlimited data. I returned the phone within the 14 days and just got my unlimited back this morning. I had to make 3 phone calls, talked to 3 different reps for an hour each and after 10 days I finally got it back. They have to fill out an IPR explaining what happened and it takes a while to have it approved. Was the phone returned within 14 days? If not, you might be out of luck.

Jonathan Alstad

It was returned within less than a week. The guy I talked to on Friday evening said to call back on the 27th (to give it a few business days) and then to call back on the 28th if it hadn’t gone through on the 28th, but I’m concerned that Mr. VIndictive’s reply below sounds like something they would do… crossing my fingers. And I’ll just be calling until they realize it’s more beneficial to them to give me back my plan then to have an employee tied up on the phone for hours on end every day for the rest of eternity.

EricMayBell

Happened to me. Tried my best but that plan is gone… I feel for you

Jonathan Alstad

It’s what I get for being on a family plan and not explicitly explaining the situation to my parents to ensure this didn’t happen. Still, it boggles the mind how VZW store employees can just straight-faced tell a customer it’s no big deal to just snag an upgrade from a family member’s line when CLEARLY I’ve not used that upgrade for a REASON for the last 3 years. My blood boils every time I think about it.

Art Holguin

snakes at the store trying to get the sale is what it is.

Jonathan Alstad

Yup. And worst part was how my parents had been so enamored with the sales associate who talked to them about how he always asked his customers how they defined/sought after wisdom…and I wanted to ask if they had gone to VZW or to a scientology temple, but I refrained because I love my parents.

Ahmed

it’s why you avoid retail locations altogether, sales to these people rank higher than dignity and integrity.

PoisonApple31

Were you the account holder on the family plan?

Jonathan Alstad

I’m a joint account holder in that I can authorize decisions on the plan, but my mom is the primary line account holder. Which I don’t really even fully understand…but basically she had the ability to make the decision.

Nicker Please

There is hope…if you have a decent rep, they’ll figure it out. I upgraded devices, changed plans, but then decided to go back to my old ULD plan within 14 days. It took a day or two for them to figure it out. This was back in April of last year though. Who knows if there has been a dramatic change in the system to prevent this.

Colin Huber

I can only imagine your look of horror when you found out she used your upgrade.

Jonathan Alstad

It kind of dawned on me a day after she told me she had finally upgraded to a smartphone (major eyerolls about going iPhone, but I figured it wasn’t necessarily a bad idea for a smartphone illiterate). I was sitting at my desk at work, and then I thought about it, and then I logged on to my account and saw the 10GB shared family plan and my contract renewal date set for 2017…and I got a very sick feeling in my stomach almost immediately, and I started mightytexting my mom entire text message essays asking her exactly what she had done…

Colin Huber

Oh man, that’s brutal. And you KNOW the Verizon employees helping her gave no warning and just passively said, “Of course, let’s just switch your plan around here real quick and here’s your new iPhone!”

Jonathan Alstad

I DO have to give them credit for saying it would take away my UDP, but they said “Look, he’s not even using 4GB a month–10GB for all of you will be plenty.” Sooo…with that logic in place, they went for it.

The did this to my wife as well when she went in. We hardly use any data but the big issue was the new plan was cost $40 a month more without me getting anything in return. Luckily she ordered her phone so when it arrived I took it to the store and demanded they change the plan back due to them lying to my wife about the cost. I got lucky because we never activated the phone as they said once it was activated they would not be able to change it back. Since then I’ve upgrade both lines using the Best Buy method so we can keep unlimited data and have new phones.

Colin Huber

Oh man, sneaky. I only use about 4 GB a month too, but am unwilling to let go of unlimited. I always worry I’ll be in a situation where I have to stream a bunch of stuff without wifi.

MasterSyrron

Because this is relevant…

Jonathan Alstad

Oh right…the internet, where every comment on every web page is totally and completely relevant.

You can just file it under “Crap Verizon’s Done Lately.”

mcdonsco

Shouldn’t be a problem if you returned it within the return window.

A Verizon rep accidentally dumped my unlimited once then used that form to get it back for me and it worked fine.

Isaac

…

Scott Willenborg

Oh good, finally they can start making some money then…

sonicyoof

Yeah, this news after their great earnings call a week or two ago.

michael arazan

Thank God Verizon didn’t have to pay any taxes for 4 years straight, so they could use that 120 Billion (In Cash) to by back all their other half of the company from vodafone

Now they Need to make back all their tax free profit from their buyback, so I’m sure 2015 is going to have some interesting ways in screwing customers.

Verizon, The Only Company That Screws Their Loyal Long Term Customers.

Josh Martin

They really keep us bending over, don’t they? 🙂

dingaling

Bent, they keep you bent over. There is no standing up with Verizon. You are forever and always in the bent position.

They just keep finding more and more ways to rip off customers. What is the point of an upgrade fee? The customer is already paying for upgrading by either paying the subsidized cost, or the full retail price that you are charging. Why do they keep adding on bogus fees?

socalrailroader

Well, because they can, and they will continue to do so until people speak out in force.

schlanz

the subsidy now compared to years ago is well over $200 higher. if the subsidy stayed the same and the carriers charged no upgrade fee you’d be looking at paying $400-500 for your subsidized devices.. but hey no upgrade fee.

vzwuser76

And the cost to use data has gone up as well. If you wanted to use 10GB of data, a few years ago it would’ve cost you $30 for an unlimited data plan. Now, if you’re on a single line, 2GB will run you $60 with a $15 per GB overage fee. Working that out, it’s another $120 for a total of $180. That’s $30 vs $180 for 10GB of data per month. Now you say the amount Verizon has to subsidize is $200, which would be over a 2 year period, and to use the same amount of data will cost you $150 more per month, or $3600 over the course of 2 years.

Now let’s say you only use 5GB per month. Verizon’s subsidies have gone up $200 over a 2 year period. A single line data plan cost will increase $75 per month, or $1800 more over a two year period than when on an unlimited data plan.

Verizon pushed for everyone to get smartphones, giving steep discounts and unlimited data to get everyone hooked on using them. Then they change the rules of the game, and switch the profit off of the plans from talk minutes to data. It’s not much different than a drug dealer when he says only the first one to get you hooked is free, after that the cost goes up.

So please, don’t tell me about poor Verizon. They have record earnings calls year after year, and celebrate by increasing fees.

schlanz

average data use is still under 2gb/person. so lets not play with numbers as if everyone needed it.

so lets compare plans then; a few years ago, unlimited talk and text for two lines with 2gb data each would have been $210 and $80 more for each additional line. Now its unlimited talk text and 10gb for $160 and $40 for each extra line. But ideally now that plan favors no contract options to make it $110 and $15 for each extra line. So that’s $100 less for 6 more gb of data.

But ok, some people didn’t need unlimited talk, so then compare their old 1400 min plan that was $100. The 10Gb share plan is $80. The line cost on both plans is $40 either way, unless of course you’re not in contract then its again $15 on the new plans. Either way the new plans are on average cheaper. And for anyone that needs unlimited data, they are the only ones unhappy.

Droid 1967

the average speed on a 55 highway is 50 miles an hour. why because you are fined over 55. use only smartphones bough in the last 2 years and give them unlmited data and see what the average is. That is the most bogus number. You either work high in a mobile company or your just plain ignorant.

schlanz

1st, terrible analogy, average speed is probably over the speed limit if anything, but regardless, even when everyone had unlimited the average data use was actually less than 800MB.

Bottom line is the average cost of plans has gone down. The average subsidy on a contract device has gone up. The folks on this site are so so so quick to jump on every change that is not in their favor and ignore any change that is in their favor.

I’m just more pragmatic than most people here who only want to look at the negatives instead of the whole picture. People paint vzw and other carriers like they are evil corporations that just want to screw over their customers.. its a childish way to view a company.

Droid 1967

no average speeds on highways are approx 5 miles below speed limit. There is no reason to charge an upgrade fee thats why you pay for the phone. charge more for the upgrade and forget about the fee its all about false advertising. look only 199 plus the hidden 40. ITs capitalism they can charge what they want and we pay or dont pay. I doesnt mean we cant speak our displeasure. it does work. remember when they wanted to charge 2 dollars to use your credit card to pay. that went away didnt it. why? their niceness? NO…. Unless we speak up they will just continue crud noone complained about 40. if they will pay 4o they sure will pay 50 and if they pay 50 they sure will pay 60. I notice you didnt deny working for such company. We dont buy your propaganda or your fake numbers. that 800MB figure was averaged from all phones including dumb phones with no data. Im sure you are aware of that but it doesnt fit your propaganda. We will continue to speak up when we disapprove of something. and you can waste your time well im sure you get paid to come around and try to deceive people but most of us aint buying your speak so have fun. IM done!

schlanz

tl;dr

You’re not paying for the phone. you’re paying for the subsidized price of the phone. the full price of phones has gone up while the subsidized price has remained pretty consistent, partially because of contract agreements with phone manufacturers like apple that dictate the subsidized cost. upgrade fees are a backdoor way for carriers to recoup the increasing cost of subsidizing equipment.

and that 800mb was not an everage including basic phones, lol, but ok buddy. keep being mad about stuff that isnt worth getting mad about.

Droid 1967

And what im saying is charge the 40 more for the phone stop hiding costs to false advertise. They raised the price by 25% thats ridiculous!

Elyssa Doom

I’m just here so I won’t get fined.

vzwuser76

First, you’re using family share plans. I’m using single line plans. In case you haven’t noticed, they are nailing you hard if you’re not on a share plan. And not everyone is on or has the ability to be on a share plan.

And you say not everyone needs more than 2 GB. My brothers family routinely runs over that amount on their unlimited share plan. He gets around 4GB per month, his daughter the same, and his son runs around 6-10 GB per month. With all of the services going towards a streaming model, data usage is only going to increase. In probably the next 5-10 years, experts are forecasting physical media going away and everything moving to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora, etc. Data usage is not going to go down or even remain the same, it will increase. And these carriers have themselves perfectly set up to reap the benefits.

michael arazan

Verizon has Yet to pay taxes in Over 4 Years Too!!

They used the money they didn’t pay taxes with to Buy Back stock from Vodafone to make their company whole again with $130 Billion IN CASH

If that were the case, do you think Verizon would be losing $200 more per upgrade? They used to have most phones free or $99 on contract, but now many of the phones are $200-$300 or more on contract, so they have gone up. Retail prices for some phones are also lower, like the Moto X, Nexus 5, One Plus One, etc., where you get flagship specs for $300-$400 or less.

schlanz

the env3, one of the more popular devices of its time, was $300 full retail at launch and $100 on contract. The Blackberry Bold, one of VZWs best selling smartphones of its time, $500 full retail and $250 on contract.

Compare that to flagship devices currently offered on vzw, $600+ full price and $200 or less on contract.

If you are comparing the most expensive phones of the time, just look at some of the current ones. The iPhone 6+ 128GB is $499 on contract and $949 off contract, and the Galaxy Note Edge is $399 on contract and $799 off contract. What you’re showing is just how inflated the retail prices are. As we saw from the Moto X, and even the G3 and Droid Turbo, the high end phones can retail for <$550.

schlanz

and consider apple doesnt offer major purchasing agreements. they charge carriers and vendors the full price of their phones. and they cant legally just throw an upgrade fee on some phones and not others.

vzwuser76

When digital cell phones started coming onto the scene, they were getting in the neighborhood of $700-1000 retail pricing. I remember a friend had to replace a broken Timeport variant of the Motorola StarTac, and it he was looking at paying around $800 for it. Cell carriers have had higher subsidies than what we have now. Back then, the contract was to ensure 2 full years of income from each customer. Now they seem to care less about keeping customers, only signing up new ones.

schlanz

and the plans were way way more expensive back then to offset the subsidies.

also maybe you could provide an example of a phone from back then that was 800 to 1000 and the subsidized cost? just for clarity.

vzwuser76

But the thing is, for what they’re charging for data, if you need more than 2GB, which is not going to be unheard of especially going forward, the increase in costs for that data is going to eclipse the extra money they pay on subsidies. All it takes is a $10 a month increase to make up that $200 subsidy increase over a 2 year period.

schlanz

unlimited talk text, 10GB, one line, no contract: $95.

5 years ago: unlimited talk text unlimited data: $120.

The percentage of customers that need more than 10gb is likely less than 1%.

vzwuser76

Now you’re comparing a no contract plan, which doesn’t include the price of the device, with a plan that subsidizes the device, and as you pointed out, at a much lower amount. This fee applies to post paid customers, not pre paid. Tell me what a post paid, single line plan, with unlimited talk, text, and 10GB of data will run you today.

If it wasn’t for them being about the only coverage in my area (AT&T being the other) I wouldn’t be with them. And AT&T is basically a GSM version of Verizon, so switching would be a lateral move for me. But I seriously haven’t seen anyone defend Verizon, especially their pricing, as much that wasn’t a CSR. The ONLY thing they have going for them is coverage footprint. Keep everything the same, like pricing, technology, etc, but switch it’s coverage footprint with AT&T or T-Mobile. Would they still be an industry leader? No, and at some point, that network footprint isn’t going to be as much of an advantage as it currently is.

vzwuser76

I gave you an example in my first post. It was one of the Motorola Time ports, the silver one that looked like a StarTac. Instead of an indigo display, it had like a 4-5 color display. And I don’t know the subsidized price, that was around 15-17 years ago.

schlanz

I don’t think they had subsidies that long ago, but if they did, then the plans made up for it. plans back then were pay by the minute

vzwuser76

You didn’t know they had it, but you know the plans covered it? And I’ve been on cell plans since 1997. I started with CommNet Cellular, which ended up getting absorbed into Verizon. It was not pay by the minute, unless you went over your plan allotment. My first plan had 450 minutes with $.35 a minute for overage. I leased a Motorola MicroTac 650e for $2 a month, and paid I believe $30-40 a month. My second phone was a Nokia 252 and cost me $90 subsidized with the same plan in 1999. But I’ve never had pay by the minute except for overages.

schlanz

I didn’t have a phone back then. I don’t know when subsidized phones started and when bundled minutes started. Theres a surprising lack of info about that stuff for that time period so I couldn’t even research an answer. But what point is it comparing todays pricing to almost 20 years ago? The industry was entirely different and phones then were just phones. data plans werent even a thing. It’s more useful comparing to the last 5 years and in that span device subsidies have gone up and plans have gone down.

The industry is moving away from contracted subsidized phones. carriers no longer want to lose money on devices every 24 months and in return further lower the plan costs. if you’re getting away from contracts, which many people have been calling for, especially on this site, then these new fees don’t effect you.

vzwuser76

I didn’t bring up older phones, you did. The RAZR V3 wasn’t available 5 years ago, that was closer to 9 years ago, before the iPhone became available and data plans were still nothing like what they are now. At that time, phones were used for calls and texting. Any data used was for downloading ringtones and games.

Lose money on devices? It’s funny you mention that. I had a Verizon CSR tell me that Verizon lost money selling phones at full retail price. Let that sink in a bit. They’re losing money selling for the same retail price that the OEMS are getting selling directly to the customer? Do you think the manufacturers were losing money selling devices? And there was no way in hell Verizon was paying the full retail price either. If you’re reselling, you get a wholesale price. Obviously it was more than the manufacturer’s cost, but it wasn’t the full retail price. If that was actually the case, they’ve got to be the most inept business I’ve ever seen.

Even if you were talking about subsidies, look at how their EDGE plan is setup. If you go with that plan, they knock $25 off the plan cost when getting a device through EDGE. That means they’ve had a $25 subsidy built into their plans from the get go. Taking that $25 times 24 months, that figures our to $600, on top of what the customer pays initially. So say a customer buys a $200 phone subsidized over 24 months. They just paid $800 for what was most likely a $600 phone. And Verizon’s not making a profit on it? How does that even figure? Now let’s go back to buying full retail. They don’t have any costs to recover, and on an older UDP, they get $600 without having to recover the device cost, and since it’s retail, they have their markup as well. So there is no way that Verizon is losing money on devices, unless they’re paying over retail price to the OEMS and then eating the cost they sell them to the public for. Does that sound plausible?

schlanz

vzw gets purchasing agreements with other manufacturers so they make a small profit on full retail for many devices. that csr was spouting nonsense like many of them do.
just not apple products; they are bought and sold at the same price, because apple has that much power with consumers that people will leave you if you don’t have it.. they can dictate that. when you consider overhead of shipping, storing, ect inventory of a device you make $0 profit on, thats losing money.

and just because you get $25 off your bill doesnt mean the old hidden subsidy cost is $25/mo. Keep in mind the built in subsidy didn’t go away after 24 months so it didn’t have to be higher anyway and the edge discount is only $15 on lower plans.

even if vzw (and other carriers) are reducing the service costs beyond the cost of what you’d get in a subsidy, its because they want to get away from the subsidy model so they need to have good incentives. which is a good thing. charge everyone less for service and let them figure out how they want to actually buy their devices at FRP.

vzwuser76

You mention the subsidy not going away after the 24 month period. Believe me, I know. I’m on an unlimited data plan, out of contract, buying full retail, and am paying the same price for service I did when I was getting subsidized devices. That same CSR who told me about taking a loss on full retail devices, also trued to tell me that subsidies weren’t built into the plan. And the CSR wasn’t the only who told me that line. Quite a few told me that cost of the an didn’t include subsidies, they take a loss when selling devices, and the only reason they do it is to insure that they have a steady cash flow for 24 months. Well if they’re taking that much loss every time they sign up a new customer, they couldn’t afford to operate.

Apple may not do purchase agreements, but I doubt they’re paying full retail price for the iPhone. They may not get as steep a discount as they do with other devices, but they’re not paying full retail. Otherwise they might as well tell people to order it directly from Apple. And as far as how Verizon deals with the lower discount on the iPhone, there was an article a few years back talking about how all these things we used to have, unlimited data, 1 year plans, loyalty discounts, etc had to go to help sustain the Apple model. And besides that, the discounts that Verizon gets on non iPhone devices also helped cover the lower profit they were making on the iPhone. Verizon has this covered, they aren’t going to take a loss on anything. If they’re doing so bad having to recover device costs, how are they doing record sales calls year after year?

There’s nothing wrong with a non subsidy model. But if you think Verizon and AT&T were going to do that on their own without having their hand forced by T-Mobile, you’re kidding yourself. Tell me this, when has Verizon ever done anything that was actually beneficial to the customer? If anything, Verizon has been more anti customer than pro. They started the trend of dropping unlimited datadata plans, 1 year contracts, early upgrades, switching upgrades, etc. And IIRC they were one of the first to announce tiered data, even if they didn’t implement it first. If it wasn’t for Verizon and AT&T being so closeclose that it’s hard to tell them from each other, and the fact that Verizon has a bit higher signal level in my area, I would’ve switched awhile ago. The only customer loyalty Verizon seems to care about enough is to tell you how long you’ve been with them when you call in. They seem to care nothing about keeping the customers they already have, they only care about signing new ones. And they’ve been that way pretty much since I’ve been with them. They had a loyalty program for like a year or two, and then axed it all of the sudden. Now the only benefits to being a long time customer is the ability to say I’m a long time customer. Anything I do will result in me getting switched to a new plan that’ll end up costing me about $100 more per month than what I’m currently paying. If it wasn’t for a little known discount I lucked in on, I’d would’ve been gone years ago. And they’ve been working like hell to get me off of it and onto one of their new “value” plans.

gadget_hero

Interesting, I wonder if fees are how Verizon will pad profits if a price war starts.

ThomasMoneyhon

It wont since this was a monkey see monkey do move that att did a couple of months ago and now verizon is just playing catch up. The pricing war to which you refer was dead the day sprint hired their new CEO and gave up on buying out t-mobile.